Shakespearean geekout: Macbeth at Stratford
On our things to do before the baby comes list, going to see Macbeth performed at Stratford is the last one. At this point, with only a month to go (maybe) before the little girl makes her entrance, the number of roadtrips I'm going to feel like embarking on will be... next to nill.
So Graig and I took the day off work yesterday to go see a preview performance of Macbeth, starring Colm Feore in the title role. Macbeth is one of my very favourite Shakespearean plays, and I have great admiration for Colm Feore , so of course when I heard Stratford was staging a production of Macbeth with Colm Feore, damn right I wanted to see it.
I forgot though, that rule number one of seeing anything at Stratford is don't see a matinee while school is still in session. Having to sit through this production amidst a sea bored, annoying, bused in teenagers was... annoying. Their immature propensity to scream when the theatre was dark or when the gunfire/explosions were going off, or their laughing during one of Lady Macbeth's darkest speeches because she says the word 'nipple' just made me wish they weren't there. Oh sure, I'm glad that they're still being exposed to Shakespeare, but during intemission, having to listen to them proudly kvetch how they 'don't get it and I slept through most of it', made me rather sad. But I also recognize that I'm different for I was a huge geek who loved Shakespeare the moment it was foisted on me in Grade 9 english. I've long thought that Macbeth was one of Shakespeare's more accessible plays, but maybe I'm wrong. It's theme of 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is an oldy but a goody, and the violence and supernatural tint to it I had always seen as a good way to draw audiences in... but maybe not? As I said, the aforementioned teenagers sure didn't get it, and the older couple seated beside Graig and I were completely lost with the woman asking me at intermission if I understood anything that had just happened. When I said I did, and she kinda looked at me disbelievingly, I sheepishly explained I had a degree in English literature and so had read a lot of Shakepspeare and upon hearing that, she was overjoyed and I broke down very quickly the major plot points of the first half of the play for her and her husband. Graig said he was struggling with the language more in this one than he had in Coriolanus too, so maybe it is just my familiarity with the play that made it easy for me, I don't know.
So, the production itself... not the best Macbeth I've seen done. The director decided to set the play in 1990's Africa (due to the Macbethian themes of rebellion and violence), complete with modern, military dress and traditional African dress, and jeeps and helicopters and guns etc. While I don't mind Shakespeare transported to different times (I know it's usually an attempt to prove the 'universality' of his plays), sometimes it doesn't quite work and when you're trying to rectify the play being in Africa but there's still all those Scottish/English/Irish references... it's kinda a noticable disconect. I know it really bothered Graig and I don't blame him for that.
They also moved the play along at a terribly fast clip with quick scene transitions and even nearly overlapping scenes (the remnants of a previous scene still being onstage for a new one) and I could see how this would be difficult to follow, especially given that Shakespeare sometimes isn't the greatest for identifying which characters are which until well into a scene. There was even one scene where it took me a moment to remember that it was Malcolm talking to MacDuff, as we hadn't seen Malcolm for awhile. The lighting and stage direction itself was well done, they made copious use of flashlights very effectively, and the banquet scene where the ghost of Banquo makes his unwelcome appearance was particularly well done, with Banquo appearing and disappearing pefectly on cue to freak Macbeth out even more. It's important this scene is done well since it is really the first major inkling that Macbeth's losing it and is what will begin to spark the rebellion of MacDuff and the other Thanes against Macbeth's rule.
The acting was pretty much fine. There were a few people making their 'Stratford debuts', some did well, others... not so much. One of the witches wasn't particularly good, and the fellow playing Duncan was ok. Some just seem to have a natural gift for speaking the speech trippingly, for others, it never seems to come easily. But then, iambic pentameter isn't a rhythm most people are comfortable speaking in. Colm Feore as Macbeth was just fine; he wavered back and forth between having absolute conviction over his actions and absolute horror over them, which is a pretty conventional way to play Macbeth, but rightly accurate. The actress playing Lady Macbeth was also very good, she sold the cold calculation that disolves into self-destroying guilt very well.
Overall, I still enjoyed the production, I'll always love Macbeth as a play, it is dark and supernatural and bloody and I'm very glad I got to see a favourite actor of mine in the lead role. I still could've done without the teenagers of course.
On a more personal note, a trip to Stratford was Graig and mine's first 'official' date nearly three years ago. As Graig pointed out, nothing in Stratford itself was really changed since our last being there, but I had to laugh when I realized how much had changed for US since then; I don't think that either of us thought as we rambled around Stratford that day that our next journey there would see us disgustingly happily married and expecting a baby in a month... Nope, doubt even the Three Witches could've prophicized that one ;)
So Graig and I took the day off work yesterday to go see a preview performance of Macbeth, starring Colm Feore in the title role. Macbeth is one of my very favourite Shakespearean plays, and I have great admiration for Colm Feore , so of course when I heard Stratford was staging a production of Macbeth with Colm Feore, damn right I wanted to see it.
I forgot though, that rule number one of seeing anything at Stratford is don't see a matinee while school is still in session. Having to sit through this production amidst a sea bored, annoying, bused in teenagers was... annoying. Their immature propensity to scream when the theatre was dark or when the gunfire/explosions were going off, or their laughing during one of Lady Macbeth's darkest speeches because she says the word 'nipple' just made me wish they weren't there. Oh sure, I'm glad that they're still being exposed to Shakespeare, but during intemission, having to listen to them proudly kvetch how they 'don't get it and I slept through most of it', made me rather sad. But I also recognize that I'm different for I was a huge geek who loved Shakespeare the moment it was foisted on me in Grade 9 english. I've long thought that Macbeth was one of Shakespeare's more accessible plays, but maybe I'm wrong. It's theme of 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is an oldy but a goody, and the violence and supernatural tint to it I had always seen as a good way to draw audiences in... but maybe not? As I said, the aforementioned teenagers sure didn't get it, and the older couple seated beside Graig and I were completely lost with the woman asking me at intermission if I understood anything that had just happened. When I said I did, and she kinda looked at me disbelievingly, I sheepishly explained I had a degree in English literature and so had read a lot of Shakepspeare and upon hearing that, she was overjoyed and I broke down very quickly the major plot points of the first half of the play for her and her husband. Graig said he was struggling with the language more in this one than he had in Coriolanus too, so maybe it is just my familiarity with the play that made it easy for me, I don't know.
So, the production itself... not the best Macbeth I've seen done. The director decided to set the play in 1990's Africa (due to the Macbethian themes of rebellion and violence), complete with modern, military dress and traditional African dress, and jeeps and helicopters and guns etc. While I don't mind Shakespeare transported to different times (I know it's usually an attempt to prove the 'universality' of his plays), sometimes it doesn't quite work and when you're trying to rectify the play being in Africa but there's still all those Scottish/English/Irish references... it's kinda a noticable disconect. I know it really bothered Graig and I don't blame him for that.
They also moved the play along at a terribly fast clip with quick scene transitions and even nearly overlapping scenes (the remnants of a previous scene still being onstage for a new one) and I could see how this would be difficult to follow, especially given that Shakespeare sometimes isn't the greatest for identifying which characters are which until well into a scene. There was even one scene where it took me a moment to remember that it was Malcolm talking to MacDuff, as we hadn't seen Malcolm for awhile. The lighting and stage direction itself was well done, they made copious use of flashlights very effectively, and the banquet scene where the ghost of Banquo makes his unwelcome appearance was particularly well done, with Banquo appearing and disappearing pefectly on cue to freak Macbeth out even more. It's important this scene is done well since it is really the first major inkling that Macbeth's losing it and is what will begin to spark the rebellion of MacDuff and the other Thanes against Macbeth's rule.
The acting was pretty much fine. There were a few people making their 'Stratford debuts', some did well, others... not so much. One of the witches wasn't particularly good, and the fellow playing Duncan was ok. Some just seem to have a natural gift for speaking the speech trippingly, for others, it never seems to come easily. But then, iambic pentameter isn't a rhythm most people are comfortable speaking in. Colm Feore as Macbeth was just fine; he wavered back and forth between having absolute conviction over his actions and absolute horror over them, which is a pretty conventional way to play Macbeth, but rightly accurate. The actress playing Lady Macbeth was also very good, she sold the cold calculation that disolves into self-destroying guilt very well.
Overall, I still enjoyed the production, I'll always love Macbeth as a play, it is dark and supernatural and bloody and I'm very glad I got to see a favourite actor of mine in the lead role. I still could've done without the teenagers of course.
On a more personal note, a trip to Stratford was Graig and mine's first 'official' date nearly three years ago. As Graig pointed out, nothing in Stratford itself was really changed since our last being there, but I had to laugh when I realized how much had changed for US since then; I don't think that either of us thought as we rambled around Stratford that day that our next journey there would see us disgustingly happily married and expecting a baby in a month... Nope, doubt even the Three Witches could've prophicized that one ;)